Multi-crore deals to boost defence

Within six months of India's biggest submarine accident, the Defence Ministry has sanctioned purchasing two deep-sea submarine rescue vessels (DSRVs) to extricate sailors trapped inside a submarine in case it meets with an accident in the high seas.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), headed by Defence Minister A K Antony, on Monday approved the Navy's proposal to buy two DSRVs at a total cost of Rs 1,500 crore â€” one each for the eastern and western naval commands. The DSRVs are among the Rs 15,680-crore worth of proposals that received the DAC's nod.

Indian Navy currently operates 13 ageing diesel electric submarines and a nuclear-powered one, which was leased from Russia. But six new submarines are under construction at Mazgaon Dock in Mumbai.

The Defence Acquisition Council had earlier decided to open a second construction line in which four submarines (out of six) would be built within the country (three at Mazgaon Dock and one at Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam, on transfer of technology) whereas two would be built in the vendor's yard abroad. â€œBecause of the submarine programme, we need rescue vessels of our own,â€ said a naval officer. India currently has an agreement with the US Navy to rescue Indian crew inside a submarine that had an accident in the deep sea. India's submarine rescue capability at the moment is limited to having an old rescue bell in the old warship INS Neerikshak.

The DAC also approved a Rs 880-crore proposal to buy 262 Israeli Barak-1 missile. The purchase was stuck for seven years because of bribery allegations associated with the deal, signed during the NDA regime. The defence ministry had put the procurement on hold because of a CBI probe since 2006.

The decision to purchase the Barak missiles (with a range between 500 m and 12 km) was taken after getting the opinion from the Attorney General.

India's latest aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, is not fitted with Barak missiles at the moment. The navy wants the vessel and upcoming Kolkata-class destroyers to be fitted with these missiles . The navy had made a strong case for the air defence missile, telling the ministry it was left with only around 150 of them. In the last DAC, Antony had formed an independent group to take a final call on the issue. The council approved a Rs 13,000-crore plan to buy 16 anti-submarine shallow-water craft to replace Abhay-class anti-submarine warfare corvettes. India currently has four such ships.

For the army, the DAC cleared a proposal to acquire 41 indigenous advanced lightweight helicopters (Dhruv). In the Rs 300-crore procurement, one of the choppers would be provided to the navy.

The defence ministry on Monday cleared a proposal to buy 262 missiles from Israel to arm the Barak-I anti-missile defence systems fitted on the navyâ€™s frontline warships, a critical acquisition that was hanging fire for several years as the Central Bureau of Investigation was probing the 2006 Barak kickbacks case.

The navy was running low on Barak missiles.

The defence acquisition council (DAC), headed by defence minister AK Antony, cleared the Rs. 880-crore missile deal at a time when the CBI has admitted that case will be closed due to lack of evidence, as reported by HT on Sunday.

Israel has said no Israeli firm paid bribes to any Indian individual or firm to bag the deal 13 years ago.

The 2006 FIR mentioned former defence minister George Fernandes and ex-navy chief Sushil Kumar, apart from unidentified officials of the Israel Aircraft Industries Limited. Fernandes and Kumar had rejected any wrongdoing.

Barely four months before the 2014 elections, the DAC also kicked off the process to buy deep-submergence rescue vehicles (DSRV) to save lives of sailors in the event of a submarine disaster, more than three months after INS Sindhurakshak exploded and sank in a Mumbai harbour killing 18 naval personnel.

The DACâ€™s acceptance of necessity (AON) --- the first step in making a military purchase --- for buying two DSRVs worth Rs. 1,500 crore comes more than 15 years after the navy projected a demand for submarine rescue equipment.

The Sindhurakshak disaster had underlined the desperate state of the navyâ€™s rescue capabilities if a tragedy were to strike on the high seas. The tragedy lent fresh urgency to buy DSRVs, a senior official said.

The DAC also agreed to a navy proposal to buy 16 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) shallow watercraft, a capability expected to cost the country more than Rs. 13,440 crore. These vessels will help the navy detect and decimate underwater threats.

It will, however, take the navy four to five years to induct the DSRVs and the ASW shallow water assets, following the existing procurement procedure.

The DAC also cleared a Rs. 300-crore proposal to equip the army with 40 and the navy with one advanced light helicopters.

NEW DELHI: Defence minister A K Antony has finally bitten the bullet. With the CBI deciding to close the infamous seven-year-old Barak kickbacks case for lack of evidence, the defence ministry on Monday cleared the long-pending "critical" naval procurement of an additional 262 Israeli Barak-I missiles for Rs 880 crore.

The Antony-led Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC) also gave the green signal for two other delayed naval projects for 16 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) warships capable of operating in "shallow waters'' for Rs 13,440 crore and two diving support vessels meant for rescuing sailors from disabled submarines for Rs 1,500 crore. The Rs 300 crore purchase of 41 Dhruv advanced helicopters, manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), was also cleared in the meeting.

"While a global tender will now be floated for the diving support vessels or DSRVs ( deep-submergence rescue vessels), the ASW boats will be built in India with some foreign collaboration for torpedoes etc. The ASW boats, with a displacement below 1,000 tonne, are crucial to track and kill enemy submarines near our coast or ports," said a source.

Both these projects have been hanging fire for long. The proposal for two DSRV-like "mini submarines" â€” which 'mate' with disabled submarines underwater to rescue trapped sailors from depths up to 610 metres â€” for instance has been stuck for over 15 years.

But it was the go-ahead to the Barak-I missiles, which will now require the final nod from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which caught the eyeballs. The Navy has for long been screaming about its fast-depleting stock of missiles to arm the Israeli Barak-I anti-missile defence (AMD) systems fitted on 14 frontline warships like aircraft carrier INS Viraat and the latest Shivalik-class stealth frigates.

But to no avail. Antony is known to stop any project at the first whiff of a scandal - 15 armament companies are currently blacklisted, while the CBI has registered 23 corruption cases in defence deals in just the last three years. And this was a full-blown CBI case registered in October 2006. It named former defence minister George Fernandes, his party associates Jaya Jaitely and R K Jain, alleged arms-dealer Suresh Nanda and former Navy chief Admiral Sushil Kumar among the accused, apart from armament firms Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael.

But with CBI failing to find evidence of kickbacks in the original Rs 1,160 crore Barak-I deal inked by the NDA regime in October 2000, the DAC has now cleared the fresh case after consulting the law ministry and attorney general. The MoD had consistently refused to blacklist IAI and Rafael, holding it would be "counter-productive" to national security. Israel is the second-largest defence supplier to India, with sales worth around $1 billion every year. Of the several projects currently underway, IAI and DRDO are jointly developing a long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM) system for Rs 2,606 crore to arm Indian warships and a medium-range SAM system for IAF at a cost of Rs 10,076 crore.

Both these systems, with an interception range of 70-km each, were to be ready long ago but have repeatedly missed deadlines. The naval LR-SAM, approved in December 2005, is now slated for completion by December 2015. The MR-SAM project, sanctioned in February 2009, in turn, has a "probable date of completion" by August 2016, say sources.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) of the Ministry of Defence on Monday gave the go ahead for four major acquisitions worth nearly Rs. 16,000 crore for the Indian Navy and the Army.

The shopping list approved for the forces includes two deep sea rescue vessels, an indigenous anti-submarine craft programme, procurement of more Israeli Barak missiles and 41 advanced light helicopters.

In order to improve the countryâ€™s response to any disaster at sea, the DAC â€” headed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony â€” approved the procurement of two deep-sea rescue vessels by the Indian Navy. The approval comes in the wake of the August 14 mishap involving INS Sindhurakshak submarine in which 18 personnel were killed.

The incident appears to have acted as a catalyst in providing a speedy approval to the Indian Navy to procure two Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles (DSRVs). A sum of Rs. 1,500 crore has been sanctioned for the project by the DAC.

Defence sources said the DSRVs would help improve the Navyâ€™s response in time of any disaster. Capable of performing even in the deep seas, these vehicles would ensure that the force is able to respond effectively in a time of crisis. INS Sindhurakshak, incidentally, is still sitting on the sea bed off the coast of Mumbai ever since it sank following multiple explosions in August.

Anti-submarine warfare
The DAC has also approved of a Rs. 13,000 crore project that would enhance the anti-submarine warfare capability of the Indian Navy. The committee has approved indigenous development of 700 ton Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft that would take on submarines operating in coastal waters, within 200 nautical miles of the base port.

These vessels would watch over foreign submarines operating close to the Indian coastline and would also be capable of laying anti-ship and anti-submarine mines.

The crafts would be built by a public sector undertaking, the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), that would work in close coordination with the Navy on the design.

Barak comes out of deep freeze

After remaining in deep freeze for five years due to an ongoing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Israeli Barak missiles have found favour with the Defence Ministry that cleared procurement proposals worth over Rs. 16,000 crore on Monday.

The proposal to procure 262 Barak I missiles for Rs. 880 crore was cleared by the DAC.

This has paved the way for the deployment of the 9 km range air defence missiles on Indiaâ€™s two aircraft carrier â€” the INS Virat, and the INS Vikramaditya â€” which at the moment is on its way to India from Russia. The Navy had been using these missiles but due to the suspension in the procurement process had been left with just 150.

Before arriving at the decision to give the go ahead for the advanced missile system, the Ministry of Defence had also weighed the opinion given by the Attorney General in the matter and that of the independent group it had constituted at the last DAC meet to take a final call on the deal.

Earlier, the procurement of the missiles had been put on hold after allegations of bribery in the deal had surfaced and the CBI had initiated a probe in 2006. With the case now in the final stages and the premier investigating agency due to file its closure report soon, the Ministry decided to go ahead with the deal.

Army to get 40 ALH, Navy one

The DAC has also given its nod to the Army to go ahead with the acquisition of 41 Dhruv advanced Light Helicopters. The choppers would be acquired at a total cost of Rs. 300 crore and one of them would serve the Navy.